A month ago, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced combating looming budget shortfalls with $1.5 billion in cuts over the next two years. He also said he is tossing around the idea of burdening residents with a seven percent property tax increase in a city that’s almost as renowned for it’s in-affordability as it is its skyline.

In the midst of a grim global crisis and cuts galore on programs that help lots of people, why hasn’t the city sold its access to the luxury boxes at Shea and Yankee Stadiums?

The city claims access to the boxes is a reward for city workers, but tell that to the EMTs, janitors, sanitation workers, and countless others underpaid blue collars who have never gotten to take in a game from the lap of luxury like the higher-ups that enjoy it on a regular basis.

Regardless of who gets to use the luxury boxes, times are tight and enough is enough.

To put things in perspective, if sold, the $1.3 million that the luxury boxes are worth could eliminate nine percent of the cuts Bloomberg is proposing.

It’s high time for city government to take the plate and eliminate true pork like this, first and foremost, rather than taking programs away from those who need them or brutalizing the beleaguered tax base further.